Ask John: Why Lab Coats?

Question:
What’s the deal with eccentric lab coat clad guys in anime. Specific ones I can recall are Seta from Love Hina, Icchan from Angelic Layer, and the father in Dual! and another one from Excel Saga. Is it a cultural thing, or an homage to an older anime?

Answer:
Anime is based on particular conventions, stereotypes and formulas. Hero teams in anime since the early 1970s traditionally consist of 5 members: a handsome young male leader; a handsome rebellious male loner; a big, strong but not particularly smart male; a child; and a young woman. Examples include Gatchaman, Crusher Joe, Go Lion, and Shinesman. Smart, studious characters virtually always wear glasses (Happy Lesson, Nuku-Nuku TV series, Love Hina, Sailormoon). Female pairs virtually always consist of a masculine, aggressive personality and a reserved feminine personality (Dirty Pair, Emblem of Gude, You’re Under Arrest, Miami Guns). Mad scientists always wear lab coats.

There’s no particular cultural background or reason for most of these stereotypes. They originated in manga and anime culture and like big, round eyes and odd colored hair, have perpetuated themselves because they have become routine cliché and because they serve a purpose. Immediately identifiable visual characteristics make manga and anime more instantly accessible and recognizable. In a market where, according to Fred Schott’s book Manga! Manga!, the average reader takes only 4 seconds to read a page of manga, and there are over 90 different anime TV series broadcast on Japanese television each week, creators need to make their characters immediately identifiable or risk loosing readers or viewers that will simply move on to the next title.